This exact same thing happened to me today! I went to a battery shop and they hooked up an obd 2 thingy before replacing the battery to "save the settings" and so that the alarm wouldn't go off. I had never heard of this before, but since they worked at a battery shop I figured they should know what they were talking about. After they hooked the new battery up, car would just crank first try, then start second try. Every time. I replaced the 7.5 amp "EG1+B" fuse in the engine bay and the CEL + flashing cruise lights cleared immediately. I started the car a couple times and it seems back to normal.